


Teen Wolf, Season 1, Episode 6, Heart Monitor

by TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Analysis, Episode Review, Episode: s01e06 Heart Monitor, Meta, Nonfiction, Season/Series 01, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-20
Updated: 2018-09-20
Packaged: 2019-07-14 19:47:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16047335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer/pseuds/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer
Summary: Warning: Contains spoilers for both the episode and the rest of the series. Complete.





	Teen Wolf, Season 1, Episode 6, Heart Monitor

Open to Scott carrying groceries. Trying to find the car, he quickly realises something is after him. Setting off numerous car alarms in order to mask the sound of his heart, he tries to hide. Then, his phone rings.

Grabbing him, Derek announces, “You’re dead.”

After the credits, it’s established this was a surprise training session. My sympathy for Derek when the hunters broke his window has just drastically decreased. At least, he had enough money to pay for it without worry. If Scott did true damage to any of the cars, I shudder to think how hard it might be for some of these people to get theirs fixed.

I don’t blame Scott, however. When a person genuinely believes their life is in danger, property damage should be the last thing on their mind, especially if doing so can help them survive.

Derek does get a little better in later seasons, but canonically, he’s bad at training people. Here he refuses to find even one thing he can compliment Scott on.

In this scene, Scott was fast, and he was smart. Making him feel bad for not being better than Derek won’t help him in the future. There’s a difference between teaching him to think of things he should do, such as turning off the phone, and potentially making him second guess himself if he does end up in a true life-threatening situations.

Scott comes close to having a breakdown over Sheriff S’s injury last episode, and Derek is unsympathetic. I believe this happened. Scott does have a genuine fondness for the sheriff, and at this point, Derek doesn’t know him. Some human getting hurt in something un-werewolf related isn’t going to be something he troubles himself with.

Derek admits he doesn’t even know if he can teach Scott due to the fact he’s a werewolf by birth and Scott is new to literally everything werewolf-related. Declaring distractions are the biggest problem, he reveals the missed call was from Allison.

Next, he throws Scott’s phone against the wall.

He says anger is what’s needed to learn how to control shifting.

Thankfully, he does realise otherwise by the time he has his conversation with Isaac.

Scott promises to stay away from Allison, at least until after the full moon, if Derek will teach him.

The next scene has him and Allison getting hot and heavy on her bed. They establish they’re both okay with taking one another’s clothes off. Before the scene can go past PG-13, there’s a knock on the door.

Scott hides in the closet, and Allison answers the door. It’s Kate, and they discuss the fact Allison is grounded. Expressing her hatred for Chris, Allison wishes for him to die.

I’ve heard a lot of teenagers express such things, but hearing it is difficult for me. I can’t say anything about people from abusive families, but right now, Chris and Victoria aren’t currently abusive, and there’s no indication they were pre-series. When it comes to just not getting along with family members, the thought of wishing death on them is completely foreign to me. So is expressing hatred towards them. Not liking them, not wanting anything to do with them, being frustrated towards them, and so on, I understand, but not hatred, and especially not wishing death on someone who shares such a strong tie to them.

Under the guise of helping Allison with her history homework, Kate steers her even further into finding out about werewolves and the Argent’s hunting lifestyle.

Later, Scott leaves via the window. Hearing rustling in the bushes, he assumes it’s Derek. When he realises it’s not, he manages to lock himself in the car.

Alpha Peter draws a spiral on the foggy window.

When Scott gets home, he locks his bedroom door, shuts the window, and turns on the lights to reveal Derek sitting in the room.

Scott tells him about the spiral, and claiming it means nothing, Derek quickly tries to leave.

“You buried your sister under a spiral,” is Scott’s reply. “What does it mean?”

As I noted in an earlier review, who buried Laura and who did the spiral is left ambiguous. Derek, Peter, and someone connected to Peter are all candidates, and it’s possible someone added the spiral after she was already buried.

Putting his hand on Scott’s shoulder, Derek answers, “You don’t want to know.” He leaves via the door.

Bad, Derek. Go out the window so that you don’t potentially run into Melissa.

To make it clear, I don’t agree with him breaking into Scott’s room, but if he's going to, he should, at least, not do anything to increase the risk of Melissa finding out about his presence and potentially getting involved in the supernatural world.

The next day, at school, telling himself to avoid Allison, Scott manages to. Seeing Jackson, he also redirects, but then, Lydia calls out to him.

Turning around, he exclaims, “Oh, come on!” Hee.

In class, he tries to talk to Stiles. However, Stiles is angry over the events of last episode.

Though, upon learning Derek is training Scott, he declares he’s taking over.

Good. Stiles is a better teacher than Derek ever will be.

At lunch, Allison is telling Lydia about the new things she’s learning about her family history, including the Beast of Gévaudan. “Your ancestors killed a big wolf. So what,” is Lydia’s bored response. She finds herself uncomfortably mesmerised by the drawing in the book, but when Allison breaks her out of her trance, she insists it simply looks like a big wolf.

Meanwhile, Scott is hiding behind a book. Pointing out this makes him more obvious, Stiles continues Allison is too busy reading, anyway.

Scott asks if he has a plan, and he answers in the affirmative.

“Does that mean you don’t hate me, now?”

“No, but your crap has infiltrated my life, so, now, I have to do something about it. Plus, I’m definitely a better Yoda than Derek.”

Stiles tries to geek out about being Yoda, but forgetting things aren’t completely better yet, Scott refuses to indulge him.

“I definitely still hate you,” Stiles announces. Stealing Scott’s book, he leaves.

Scott tries quickly following, but spotting him, he tries to catch up with him. He hides in the boy’s room.

Later, he and Stiles go onto the field. Stiles gives him a heart rate monitor he “temporary misappropriated” from the track team. He says he’s going to use the coach’s phone, which he admits to flat-out stealing, to try to help Scott learn how to control his heart rate, and hopefully, his transformations, too.

Duct taping Scott’s hands together, Stiles begins pelting him with balls.

Witnessing this, Jackson is amused until he sees Scott fall to the ground and break the duct tape.

Carefully approaching him, Stiles says he was starting to change. They come to the false conclusion about Derek being right about anger being necessary.

“I can’t be around Allison.”

“Just because she makes you happy?”

Scott declares she makes him weak.

In the locker room, Stiles announces, “You know, this whole ‘women make you weak’ thing is a little too Spartan warrior for me.”

Actually, the Spartans were reportedly ahead of their time in gender equality. They were more xenophobic than misogynistic or sexist.

Scott is worried about ending up like Derek, and Stiles assures him, “We’ll figure it out.”

They leave, and looking completely sick, Jackson wanders around, takes off his shirt due to feeling overly-constricted, rips of the bloody bandage on his neck, and has a hallucination of something crawling out of his mouth.

Next, he goes to sit down next to Allison in the hallway.

I often find seasons 1-2 Jackson unsympathetic, but there are times when Haynes truly nails it when comes to showcasing vulnerability in characters he’s playing.

Giving a nice apology about how he’s treated her and Scott, he expresses a desire to be friends with her, and when he shows genuine vulnerability, despite herself, Allison starts to warm towards him.

It’s not particularly important to the scene, but it’s mentioned Jackson is skipping chemistry, and I imagine he knows he’ll get away with it due to Harris’s soft spot for him.

Later, in the coach’s class, Allison, Stiles, and Scott are all present, and Allison sits behind Scott before Stiles can. Telling him she switched lab partners to be his, she suggests he come over later to work on said project.

Poor Allison. Devotedness and loyalty are a large part of her character, and I’m not sure if she was ever in love with Scott, but I do believe she genuinely, deeply loved him.

Here, I do believe Scott is trying to the right thing, but he’s failing miserably, and she’s suffering for it. She’s trying her best to be a good girlfriend and keep their relationship strong, and he’s playing hot-and-cold with her.

It would have been better if, instead of trying to ghost her, he explained he was dealing with some personal issues and was going to need to spend some more time alone for a bit. Though, he’s sixteen, this is his first relationship, and he’s dealing with the supernatural. I give him a pass for not handling this well.

Moving on, as he often does, the coach quickly deserves to be smacked. This time he goes off on Scott in front of the whole class. Although, it is funny when he asks if Scott understands sarcasm, and looking at Stiles, Scott answers in the affirmative.

Scott’s heart rate naturally rises to dangerously high levels, but then, it starts to go down. Stiles discovers the cause: Allison is holding Scott’s hand underneath the desk. Aw.

After class, Stiles explains Allison is what helps keep Scott’s wolf side in check. “She’s kind of like an anchor.”

“You mean because I love her?” Realising what he just said, he acknowledges he loves her.

Stiles gets another idea, and realising this isn’t going to be pleasant, Scott is resigned.

Outside, Stiles frames Scott for keying someone’s car, and Scott starts getting beat up. Concentrating, he manages to zone in on Allison’s voice.

Then, Harris appears. He demands to know what Scott and Stiles think they’re doing, but the boys who were beating up a defenceless boy are allowed to wander off.

Meanwhile, at the hospital, Derek is visiting Peter. He begs him to give some sign of being cognisant.

“Someone killed Laura. Your niece. Laura. Whoever he is, he’s an alpha now. But he’s one without a pack, which means he’s not as strong. I can take him, but I have to find him, first.”

He asks if there’s any possibility of another family member surviving. “Just give me anything. Blink, raise a finger, just anything.” He gets loud and physical, and Nurse Jennifer appears. He leaves, and Peter’s finger moves.

Outside, Derek finds someone left a paper on his windshield. What’s on it isn’t shown to the audience, but he doesn’t react well to it.

Meanwhile, Scott and Stiles are in detention with Harris. Scott explains he needs to go to work, but Harris simply smiles slightly in denial.

When I first saw this scene, I got the impression it was hinting at Harris subtly working to help heal their friendship. However, whether he’s doing so for good or bad was/is ambiguous.

Harris doesn’t like Stiles. Neither do Deaton and Julia/Jennifer. Whether they know what he is or just what he has the potential to be/do, something about him makes them uneasy.

Yet, it seems, despite the antagonistic way Harris does it, he often propels them in the direction of the truth.

They start to talk, and he doesn’t attempt to put a stop to it.

“You knew I would heal.”

“Yep.”

“So, you did that to help me learn.”

“Yep.”

Scott points out it was also done to punish him.

“Yeah, well, that was obvious.”

Harris is shown watching them.

“Dude, you’re my best friend, and I can’t have you being angry with me.”

Stiles admits, “I’m not angry anymore.” Then, he gives the ‘you must answer the call’ speech.

I hate this trope so much, and part of why I was so sympathetic towards Scott at the beginning is because, he didn’t want to save the world or the town or stop the alpha. He wanted to be a normal kid and enjoy his life, and aside from him making the comment about Derek’s family deserving to burn to death, he might have done some head-banging things, but his way of expressing this wasn’t too bad.

Except for that comment. In real life, I would never advocate a sixteen-year-old be beaten, but this being fiction, I really wouldn’t have minded if Derek had pummeled him for that.

I believe a person has a responsibility not to use their abilities to harm others. Otherwise, just because someone would be great at [insert profession] or has supernatural abilities doesn’t mean they owe it to anyone, including themselves, to enter [insert profession] or use those abilities to help others or to save lives.

It’s great if they do, but it’s not indicative of a moral failing if they don’t. In Scott’s case, the problems really started when he started to buy into his role as a protector and leader. He’s neither, and it was in trying to be both that he became a truly manipulative, dangerous individual.

Back to the scene, Scott promises, “I know. I will.”

Since they’re now truly reconciled, Harris releases them from detention.

At the vet, we find out why Deaton will later start using mountain ash on the gate outside the waiting room. Appearing, Derek shows Deaton an article about a deer Deaton found with a spiral on it. Deaton lies, and Derek calls him on it.

Derek attacks, and when Deaton wakes up, he’s tied up. He tells Derek where the key to the drug locker is, but making it clear he doesn’t want drugs, Derek continues physically intimating him.

Scott shows up, and putting Scott above himself, Deaton yells for him to get out. Interestingly, Deaton might already know Scott is a werewolf, and yet, he still yells for Scott to escape rather than fight and risk being hurt.

I’d like to believe, even if Deaton’s agenda was evil, he did genuinely care for Scott.

Knocking Deaton out, Derek makes it clear he thinks Deaton is the alpha. He starts to hit again, but a wolfed out Scott grabs his arm. Derek steps back, and Scott returns to human form. “Hit him, again, and then, you’ll see me get angry.”

He starts attending to Deaton, and good for him, but it would have been better to lie him down instead of keeping him in the chair.

Derek paces.

Scott tells Derek to give him an hour.

“Then what?”

“Meet me at the school in the parking lot,” he orders.

Derek leaves.

Later, Stiles and Scott show up at the school, and Stiles withdraws a pair of bolt cutters so they can get inside the school.

People learn, and they don’t. Two seasons later, Allison uses bolt cutters. Two seasons later, two of these three decide to use the school to trap the antagonist, and as a result, people are endangered.

Derek shows up with Deaton still tied up and unconscious in the backseat.

If this happened, why didn't Scott immediately call 911 after Derek left and see Deaton loaded into an ambulance? If he needed to, he could have stayed hidden as it happened. He wouldn't have even had to speak. Just dial 911 on the clinic's landline, hide when police come, and watch as they get an ambulance and load him up.

The duo goes inside.

Scott tries making a howl into an intercom, and both Derek and Stiles are disdainful of his attempt. Stiles encourages him, and he makes what I assume is a proper howl.

Look, I know dogs bark and growl, cats meow and hiss, and certain birds can speak human words. Otherwise, animal noises are a mystery to me.

Once they go outside, Derek announces, “I’m going to kill both of you.” He points out they could have gotten the attention of people besides the alpha.

Stiles is a fanboy towards Scott, and hearing something, Derek orders, “Shut up.”

Not realising Derek is focused on something else, Stiles retorts, “Don’t be such a sourwolf.”

Scott realises Deaton is gone, and Derek himself didn’t this realise until now.

Deaton probably used the telluric currents. I’m not sure I completely agree, but I read a convincing meta about how Deaton planned for alpha Peter to kill Allison in order to draw Gerard back to Beacon Hills. Either way, his up-and-vanishing hints he knew/suspected something bad was about to happen, and I wonder if he was prepared to sacrifice Scott or believed alpha Peter wouldn’t hurt Scott due to Scott being pack.

Appearing, alpha Peter uses his claws to pick Derek up. Derek coughs up blood, and alpha Peter throws him against the wall. Aside from the fact Peter might have killed Laura, this is definitely one of the reasons Derek’s first reaction to coming across Peter in human form after the reveal is to beat him up.

The duo runs into the school, and Derek lies on the ground with an utterly dead to his eyes.

Fin.


End file.
